Guide finger for kluge printing presses



March 10, 1953 A. R. BoYb 2,631,036

GUIDE FINGER FOR KLUGE PRINTING PRESSES Filed April 20, 1950 26 15' 27as 31 2s INVENTOR, ABE R. Born, BY

1 fl -r'roR-EY.

Patented Mar. 10, 1953 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE GUIDE FINGER FOR KLUGEPRINTING PRESSES Abe R. Boyd, Indianapolis, Ind.

Application April 20, 1950, Serial No. 157,157

3 Claims. 1

This invention relates to an adjustable guide finger particularlyadapted for use on Kluge printing presses, and consists essentially of ahousing having a substantially vertically guided foot carried by ahousing mounted on the paper feeder bar and so designed as to permit thefoot to come into close proximity with the side registering spring clipcarried on the bed of the press.

In this particular type of printing press, the paper stock is fed onesheet at a time by means of a number of vacuum cups coming over andpicking the sheet ofi of the pile of blank paper and then depositing thepaper on the inclined bed of the press. The adjustable fingerconstituting my invention is carried by the structure which moves thevacuum cups from the stock pile to the press bed. The foot of the fingeris permitted, in View of my invention, to be positioned in closeproximity to the side registering clip or tongue so that all of thesheets will come down into registry without lateral displacement whenreleased from the vacuum feeding cups.

Therefore the primary purposes of the invention are found in the abilityto secure closer registration by reason of the use of the device, thequick manipulation of the device for proper adjustment so as to preventstriking the bed of the plate itself, and also to prevent kicking of thepaper out of registry, and also in the extreme simplicity of the devicepermitting the supplying to the trade at a relatively low cost.Furthermore the device eliminates possibility of damage both to thepaper stock and to the press itself by being yieldable.

These and many other objects and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent to those versed in the art in the following description of oneparticular form of the device as illustrated in the accompanyingdrawing, in which,

Fig. 1 is a view in fragmentary top plan view and partial section of thesuction cup support bar and a device mounted thereon embodying theinvention;

Fig. 2 is a view in front elevation; and

Fig. 3 is a view in vertical section on the line 33 in Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawing, in which like characters of reference indicatelike parts, the press in question to which the invention is to beapplied has an inclined bed Ill, to one side of which is mounted a sideregister strip I I carried by a bracket 12 which in turn carries atongue II) on the end of a shank 14 to be adjustable laterally of thebracket l2. This much is standard equipment on the press.

A transverse bar It carried by the support member it has mounted thereonin transversely spaced relation a plurality of vacuum cups l1, hereinshown as four in number. These vacuum cups IT are interconnected with avacuum producing device not shown through the fixed tubes I 8 and therubber tubes I9. The bar it operates on the Kluge press in an arcuatedirection of travel to lift from the bed Hi from the position indicatedin Fig. 3 to travel upwardly and rearward'ly and come down on top offthe stack of loose sheets (not shown) and then return with a singlesheet to deposit the sheet on the bed It with the nozzles in some suchrelation thereto as shown in Fig. 3 when the vacuum is destroyed inorder to let the paper sheet drop. However the paper extends to oneside, the right-hand side as viewed in the drawing, to have an edgethereof come under the upturned end of the register tongue it.

In the absence of some device to guide the paper, the sheet will notproperly register in relation to this tongue I3 and the member H. Toprovide for this operation, I provide a structure having a generallytubular housing 20 with a rearwardly turned mounting head 2| throughwhich extends laterally a rectilinear opening 22 to fit rather snuglyover the forward side and the top and bottom faces of the bar l5. Aspring plate 23 is secured to the body head 2| across the back face ofthe bar l5, in order to provide a frictional engagement between the head2i and the bar i5 sothat the member will be frictionally engaged in anyselected position longitudinally of the bar I5 at least between theouter tube l8 and the end of the bar I5, Fig. 2.

The tubular member 20 has a bore 25 extending therethrough having amajor diameter and then a smaller bore 25 continuing therefrom and outthrough the upper end. The juncture of the bores 25 and 26 forms anannular shoulder 22?. A vertically disposed shank 28 slidably fitswithin the bore 25, and has a stem 29 fixed to its upper end andextending on out slidably through the bore 25 to extend above the member29. This stem 29 has its upper end portion 3%} screwthreaded to receivethereon the knurled nut it by means of which the stem may be lifted orlowered relative to the head 21. A spring 32 surrounds the stem 29 tobear coinpressively against the shoulder 2'! and the top end of theshank 23 tending to urge the shank 28 downwardly, but only as far as maybe permitted by the adjustment of the nut 3| along the stem portion 30.In order to prevent rotation of the shank 28 within the bore 25, theshank is provided with 3 a notch 33 through which extends a pin 36carried by the member 20. This notch 33 has sufficient longitudinallength as will permit the desired extension and retraction of the shank28 from the lower end of the member 20.

On the lower end of the shank 28 there is provided a foot 35 inclineddownwardly in substantial parallelism with the top face of the bed is.The under side of the foot 35 has aflat surface 36 which will come intocontact with the sheet of paper being carried by the vacuum cup ll.

Some paper stock will be heavier than others, such as the differencebetween light tissue paper and heavier stock bordering upon cardboard,and accordingly such differences in paper will cause diiferences in thedropping and registerin action of the individual paper sheets. Thereforethe foot 35 needs to be made adjustable in relation to its final heightfrom the top face of the bed id when the paper is released from thevacuum cup ll, so that the paper will not be disturbed from its registryunder the tong e 43. Should it accidently occur that the foot 35 belowered too much, then when it strikes the bed i} it may yieldingretract upwardly by reason of the shank 28 sliding within the bottom ofthe member 2&3 against the pressure of the spring 32. The permissiblevertical adjustment of the foot 35 through the turning of the nut St thedesired positioning of the foot 35 very uicl' with the minimum amount ofmovement of pr: so that the adjustment may be made in accordance withthe paper being employs ves of the attachment itself.

It is further to be noted that the of the foot 35 has a rounded surface3 prevents kick-back of the paper in every ope. tion. The desiredadjustment of the foot is to have its lowermost point below theuppermost rear end of the tongue 13 as indicated in the relationshipsthereof in Fig. 3.

While I have herein shown and described my invention in the oneparticular form, it is obvious that structural changes may be employedithout departing from the spirit of the invention, I therefore do notdesire to be limited to that precise form beyond the limitations whichmay be imposed by the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a printing press having a bed, a side registry upturned tongue,and a shiftable bar extending transversely of the bed to carry paperfeeding mechanism in an arcuate manner of travel, an adjustable guidefinger comprising a body friction-ally engaging said bar to be shiitabletherealong; an approximately vertically extending tubular member carriedby the body; a shank slidingly entering the lower portion of saidmember; a stem extending from fixed connection with said shank upwardlythrough and above the member; a nut on the stem externally of themember, screw-threadedly engaging the stem; a spring surrounding thestem within the member urging said shank downwardly and maintainingsaid. nut seated against the upper end oi said member; and a foot on thelower end of said shank having a fixed toe end directed in the directionof the paper feed over the bed; whereby said foot may be adjustedtransversely of said bed and also vertically in reference to said tongueto have the foot come to a final lowest position of travel of said barwith the foot spaced above the bed but below said tongue upturnedportion.

2. In a printing press having a bed, a side registry upturned tongue,and a shiftable bar extending transversely of the bed to carry paperfeeding mechanism in an arcuate manner of travel, an adjustable guidefinger comprising a body frictionally engaging said bar to be shiftabletherealong; an approximately vertically extending tubular member carriedby the body; a shank slidingly entering the lower portion of saidmember; a stem extending from fixed connection with said shank upwardlythrough and above the member; a nut on the stem externally of themember, screw-threadedly engaging the stem; a spring surrounding thestem within the member urging said shank downwardly and maintaining saidnut seated against the upper end of said member; and a foot on the lowerend of said shank having a fixed toe end directed in the direction ofthe paper feed over the bed; whereby said foot may be adjustedtransversely of said bed and also vertically in reference to said tongueto have the foot come to a final lowest position of travel of said barwith the foot spaced above the bed but below said tongue upturnedportion; said foot having a flat under surface and a rearwardly andupwardly rounded heel. the toe end of the foot being closer to the bedthan its heel at the end of its lowermost travel.

3. An adjustable guide finger to be mounted on a shiftable printingpress paper feed bar, com prising a tubular member; means for mountingthe member on said bar; a shank longitudinally slidably entering saidmember to extend by a lower end therefrom; stop means limiting downwardtravel of the shank and also holding said shank against rotation withinsaid member;

- spring means urging said shank to its downward limit of travel; meansfor retaining the shank at selected elevations above said limit; a ri idfoot on the lower end of said shank; and said foot comprising a rearheel and a forwardly and down wardly extending toe, said foot having afiat undersurface inclining upwaruly and rearwardly from the forward endof said toe, said foot further being characterized by having said heelrounded from said undersurface around and upwardly to said shank.

ABE R. BOYD.

REFERENCES ('JITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,011,009 Bakke Dec. 5, 19112,088,377 Kluge et a1. July 27, 193'. 2,400,927 Harrold May 28, 19462,442,839 Carlson June 8, 1948

